Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1887-12-15
yaeed in all kinds of industries GRO 49s are


which are domestics, servants and labor
ers, while l,SlO,26 are employed in trade
and transportation and 3,o37 are classed
as employ es at manufacturing and mining.
For present purposes, however the late
number given should be con ,iderably re-
duced. Without attempting to enumer-
ate all, it will be conceded that there
should be deducted from these, which it
includes, 3'o l43 carpenters and loiners,
2S5,170 milliners. dressmakers and seam
stresses 172, I2j blacksmiths 1873, ,o6 tailors
and tailoresses, 10000 masons, "a, 241 butch
ers, 800 bakers, q, lo2 plasterers, and
4,S6l manufacturing agricultural nipple
ments, leaving 20 3,OSb persons employed
in manufacturing industries such as are
claimed to be benefited by high tariff.
To these the appeal is made to save their
employment and maintain their wages by
resisting a change. There should be no
disposition to answer such suggestions by
the allegations that they are in minority
among those who labor and therefore
should fOrego an advantage in the inter
est OF low prices for the ma. GRITTY. Their
compensation as 1t may be affected by the
operations of tariff laws should at all
times be scrupulOusly kept in view; and
yet, with slight re ection, they Will
not overlook the act that they are
consumers with the rest that they
too. have their own wants and those OF
their families to supply from their earn
ing and that the prices OF the necessaries
of life as we'll as the amount or those
wants will regulate the measure OF their
welfare and comfort, but the reduction of
taxation demanded should be 80 measured
as not to necessitate or justify either the
loss of employment by the workingmen
or the lessening of has wages; and the
profit still remaining to the manufactures
after q necessary readJustment should
furnish no excuse for the sacrlhce or the
interests of his employers In either their
opportunity to work or the diminuition
OF their compensat on. Nor can the work
er in manufactures understand that while
a high tariff IL claimed to be necessary to
allow payment of remunerative wages, 1t
certainly results in very large increase
in the price of nearly all sorts of manu-
features which, in almost countless forms,
he needs for the use OF himself and MS
family. he receives at the desk OF his
employer his wages, and perhaps before
he reaches his home is obliged, IN a pur-
chase for family use OF an article which
embraces his own labor. to return in the
payment of the increasing price which
the tarin permits the hard earned com
pensatlon OF many days OF toll.
now II AFFECTS tnE FARMER.
The farmer and agriculturist who man
ufacJures nothing, but who pay the IN
creased price which the tariff i'm
poses upon every agricultural I'M
PIGMENT, upon all he wears and upon all
he uses and owns, except the increase OF
his tlocks and herds ana such things a his
vited to aid in maintaining tie present
situation. de is told that "A high duty on
imported wool is necessary for the beneht
of those who have sheep to smear, in order
that the price of their wool may be IN
creased. They, of course, are not reminded
that the farmer who has no sheep Is, by
this scheme, obliged, in his purchases OF
clothing and wooden goods, to pay a
tribute to his fellow farmer as well as TO
the manufacturer and merchant; nor Is
hA at
sheep-owners themselves and their house
holds must wear clothing and use other
articles manufactured from the wool they
sell at tariff prices, and thus as consum-
ers, must return their share OF this IN
creased price to tradesmen. j THINK III
may be fairly assumed that large pro-
portion of the sheep owned by the farmers
throughout the country are found In small
hocks, numbering from 20 to ~. The duty
on the grade of imported wool which these
sheep yield is 10 cents each pound If of the
value OF 80 cents or less, and J. cents IL or
the value OF more than 30 cents. II the
liberal estimate of six pounds be allowed
Tor each fleece the duty thereon would be
10 or I. cents, and this may be taken as the
utmost enhancement of its price to the
farmer by reason of this duty. Eighteen
dollars would thus represent the increased
iprice of the wool from % sheep, and SJ6
that from the wool of 30 sheep; and at
~ esent values this addition would amount
TO about one. third OF its price. If upon its
sale the farmer receives this or a less tariff
profit. the wool leaves his hands charged
with precisely that sum which, In all It's
changes, will adhere TO 1t until 1T reaches
the consumer. When manufactured into
cloth and other goods and material for
use, it's cost Is not only increased to the
extent of the farmers tarlH proht, Dut q
further sum has been added for the bene-
tit of the manufacturers under the opera
tions of other tariff laws. In the mean
finds it necessary TO purchase wooden
goods and material to clOthe himself and
family for the winter When he faces the
tradesman for that purpose he discovers
that he is obliged not only to return IN the
way of increased prices his tariff profit on
the wool he sold and which then perhaps
lies before him in manufactured form, but
that he must add considerable sum
thereto to meet a further increase IN cost
caused by tariff duty on the manufac-
ture. Thus, in the end he is aroused to the
fact that he has paid upon moderate
purchase as a result OF the tariff scheme,
which, when he sold his wool, seemed so
profitable, an incre Use IN price more than
sufficient to sweep away all the tariff
profit he received upon the WOO he pro-
duced and sold.
When the number of farmers engaged
in wool raising IS compared with all the
farmers in the country, and the small
proportion they bear TO our population is
that the benefit OF the present tariff on
wool is illusory; and, above all, when it
must be conceded that the increase of the
cost of living caused by such tariff, be-
comes burden upon those with moder
means, and the poor, the employed and
the unemployed, the sick and we'll and the
young and old, and that it constitutes a
tax which with restless grasp is fastened
upon the clothing of every man, woman
and child in the land, reasons are suggest
ed whv the removal or reduction OF this
duty should be included in a revision Of
our tariff laws.
COMBINATIONS AND TRUSTS.
In speaking of the increased cost to the
consumer of our home manufactures, re-
sulting from duty paid upon imported
articles of the same description, the fact
Is not overlooked that competition among
our domestic producers sometimes has the
effect of keeping the price of their prod
ucts below the highest limit allowed by
such duty. But At is notorious that this
competition Is too often strangel by
combinations quite prevalent at this time.
and frequently called trusts, which have
Tor their object the regulatio of the sup.
ply and price of commodities made and
sold by members of the combination. The
people can hardly hope for any considera-
ton in the operation of these selfish
schemers.
IL, however, in the absence of such COM
hi tiou N healthv and free COmDetitiO